{"id":44055,"date":"2015-03-05T02:18:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T18:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=44055"},"modified":"2015-03-05T02:18:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T18:18:40","slug":"villegas-on-anti-discrimination-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/03\/05\/villegas-on-anti-discrimination-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Villegas on anti-discrimination bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Archbishop<\/a>
Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas (CBCP News photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — The Catholic Church insisted its rights in choosing those who would want to be part of the clergy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church asserts its exclusive right to determine its own criteria and to exclude even on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity if it finds these to be hindrances to the fidelity that is expected or ordained or consecrated persons,\u201d Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news website.<\/p>\n

The CBCP president is reacting on the \u201canti-discrimination\u201d measure or the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity bill.<\/p>\n

Villegas said that such right was stated under the \u201cfree exercise\u201d clause of the fundamental law of the land.<\/p>\n

He said that it was the choice of the person with which gender to identify.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202aOn the basis of its understanding of the human condition, the Church cannot encourage persons to \u2018choose\u2019 their gender, orientation, and sexual identity as if these were matters at the free disposal of choice,\u201d the Catholic prelate said.<\/p>\n

The head of the CBCP also echoed the statement of Pope Francis on gays, saying that they should \u201cnot be demeaned, embarrassed, or humiliated\u201d and should be integrated into society, but affirmed the Church teaching that homosexual acts were a sin.<\/p>\n

He added that \u202a\u201cno one may be excluded from the life of the Church and its sacraments merely because of avowed\u201d orientation or identity.<\/p>\n

But, the Lingayen-Dagupan prelate reiterated the Church\u2019s stand against same sex unions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf \u2018gay rights\u2019 movements, for instance, encourage free and unbridled sexual relations between persons of the same sex, the Church cannot lend its support, for in its view, they ultimately do a disservice to our brothers and sisters,\u201d said Villegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — The Catholic Church insisted its rights in choosing those who would want to be part of the clergy. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","mauthors-ferdinand-g-patinio","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}